Page 80 of Lady Dragon
Red, like Raka. Instead of shying away, Samansa dragged herself to her feet, still holding on to Kirek. “Where is she? Where’s Raka? I’ll—”
Whatever threat she’d been about to deliver was cut off as the bond snapped into place. Like her first breath of life, it was like nothing she remembered ever feeling before. Suddenly, she wanted to cradle this huge dragon in her arms, nurse her back to health, andmurderwhoever had done this to her. It wasn’tjust passion. She felt it with every thread of blood and shard of bone in her body.
“Lords and ladies,” Samansa exclaimed—rather inanely, in this place—standing stunned as if she’d been hit with a hammer upside the head. “So this is how it feels. The pair-bond.”
Kirek’s eyes narrowed even as her nostrils flared.The bond—you feel it? How?
“I don’t know,” Samansa said, and then tipped her head back to laugh at the cave’s ceiling.Oh, how she missed the sky. “But it’s incredible. Overwhelming. It feels… unbreakable.”
And you… feel this for me?Kirek asked cautiously.
Samansa rounded on her, whipping her hand away from her jaw to wave it in front of the dragon’s face. “Ialreadycared for you, you giant, thick-skulled fool! Iloveyou. I told you I loved you! I did then, and I do now, and this has nothing to do with that! This is just… different. Not more powerful,” she insisted, folding her arms, her glare skipping from Kirek to Valraka over her shoulder. “I don’t like her standing so close to you. Getback, Valraka.”
Kirek didn’t even turn, as if she had no care in the world but Samansa, let alone the clear and present danger behind her.Then we feel the same now. In every way.
Valraka actually shifted a step back as she spoke.These feelings between you are… unnatural.The distaste in her voice made it seem like the politest way she could put it.
Our feelings were only cursed because Raka polluted the Heartstone with her wrath, Kirek hissed, rounding on her, an answering threat rising off her like a heat wave, despite the cave being plenty hot already and the blood oozing all over her scales.She was jealous, Kirek continued with blistering precision.What’s between Samansa and me may be unusual, and require a Heartstone to even occur, but our bond, even our deeper feelings, are not wrong. It wasRakawho was wrong,herresentful and hateful feelings that are twisted, which over the centuries became woven into draconic beliefs—beliefs that are incorrect. Beliefs that transformed your mother beyond evenyourrecognition. That’s what you came here to see, yes? If she would lose herself? And she did. And you chose to let her go. So let her beliefs die with her and Raka.The dragon glanced at Samansa.We are not an abomination. We are a marvel.
Samansa couldn’t help but smile at that—words she never thought Kirek would speak so boldly to her cousin. Or—was Valraka still only her cousin, or something else now? Samansa didn’t see any signs of Pavak, though the dragon was apparently dead. A fight had clearly occurred, by the looks of Kirek, and yet Valraka was unscathed. Sowhowas now Queen Mother?
“What happened?” Samansa demanded.
I killed Pavak, Kirek said bluntly.And sent Raka to a fiery end with her, she added, as if it had been no overlarge task, nodding at where the skull had once stood.
Which meant Kirek was… “Oh no,” Samansa said. “No,” she shouted at Valraka. “You two will not fight. You willnotharm her.”
And what can you do, little one, to stop me? Nothing, Valraka said, though there was no relish in her tone.I have to answer Kirek’s challenge to my mother with my own.
“And back and forth it goes! I know Kirek was responding to her own mother’s defeat, and that’s just… foolish!” Samansa spun back to Kirek. “So foolish, after what we’ve gained and stand to lose.”
I won’t let Andrath—Kirek began.
“I’m not talking about Andrath!” Samansa shouted, interrupting her. “I’m talking aboutus. I don’t care if you’re a dragon and we can never be in each other’s arms again. I’ll still love you wherever, whatever you are, like Rakacouldn’tlove Nakor. But I will not let you stay here just to be killed by your cousin! This has to end!”
She turned back to Valraka before either dragon could get a word in. “Kirek could come live in Andrath with me. Even as a dragon. But IthinkI know where the other Heartstone is, now that I’ve seen what it looked like in Raka’s memory.”
It was Valraka’s turn to blink.There are two?
“Thereweretwo,” Samansa corrected, glancing down at her breast. “Now only one—I hope there’s still at least one. Nakor’s. It’s a long story,” she continued hurriedly. “But I believe I’ve even seen it. I just didn’t recognize it for what it was.”
And what of the broken Heartstone?Valraka said, eyeing her chest curiously.
Samansa rested a hand over it. It felt warm to the touch, but not hot. “What remains of it is in me. It’s never leaving. And I think it’s given me something I don’t understand yet.”
Life, Kirek said.
“Yes. And more. I’m not dying from this heat, for one, and I can understand you. I think I have somewhat of a dragon in me still.”
You can’t transform, can you?Kirek’s question was laced with fear—fear that Samansa might become Raka again.
The princess didn’t blame her, but there was no cause for it.
“No, I can’t transform,” she said softly. “And Raka’s not coming back. Don’t worry.” She turned to Valraka. “Butyou. Sincewe can understand each other, let me make myself plain. If you harm Kirek, I will spend my life, my queendom’s resources, everything I have inside and out, to destroy you.”
Even Valraka looked taken aback, but she tried to mask it with bluster as obvious as any queen caught out with a wine stain on her gown.Or I could kill youbothnow.
“Could you?” Samansa said coldly. “Oryoucould die.”
